Four Hour Body | Long Term Data, Results and Tracking

NOTE: Prior to personally implementing many of the protocols of the 4 Hour Body I already spent way to much time in the gym. I thought I had too. Usually my routine would take well over an hour. Performing various repetitions of the same meaningless exercises and getting absolutely no results. This is something I shared with most of my gym colleagues most of whom continue to thrust weights around for countless hours thinking this is what they must do to MAINTAIN what they already have. This thinking had me in the gym 3-4 X per week for an hour at a time. Without much in the way of gains mind you.

Switching to Occam’s Protocol for me was an act of faith. I did not personally believe that I could work out just 1x or 2x per week for 20 minutes and not specifically gain muscle, but keep the muscle definition I have and be able to continue lifting the weights that I had. My goal was never to be a body builder, but to have some muscle definition, feel great and be in good health.

So I cut my routine down from about 3 hours per week to 40 minutes per week and now about 20 minutes of gym time total per week.

Thanks for putting together this website. Definitely a good resource for anyone wanting to implement Tim’s protocols.

I just purchased the Geek To Freak supplements (except Chromemate and polycosinal, hard to find in India) and the PAGG stack (still looking for the right garlic and decaf green tea though). And I’ll be implementing Occam’s soon too.

I want to ask about your stats. Are you a consistent follower of Slow-Carb, Occam’s, supplementation or PAGG stack? The reason I ask is that over the course of the year for which you have provided tracking data, there has been no significant change in your body fat % or weight. You’ve seen a small change in total inches… interesting that this has been achieved without a change in body fat or weight. It seems you’re a believer in the program, but the question your stats beg is “Why?”

No discouragement intended, just looking for some insight since I’m about to begin this whole process.

For me personally there is a variable involved in all my decision making (weather I am conscious of it or not) and that variable is time.

Tim Ferriss is a master of this. In the 4 Hour Workweek he teaches one how to maximize the results of one’s business ventures and minimize that variable by using various techniques. He reminds us that most people spend quite a bit of time chasing very poor results. And that is really just a by-product of poor efficiency.

It may be in life that time is actually not a variable, since it appears we may have a set amount of it. And in this case it is important that if we seek a certain result in life, we minimize the amount of precious time we use to get those desired results.

You pointed out a big flaw in my presentation of my own results above. Something I have talked about in passing in several of my result oriented blog posts but one I have completely overlooked here. I have not included the most important number that I use to guide all my results. And yes, that is time.

Prior to personally implementing many of the protocols of the 4 Hour Body I already spent way to much time in the gym. I thought I had too. Usually my routine would take well over an hour. Performing various repetitions of the same meaningless exercises and getting absolutely no results. This is something I shared with most of my gym colleagues most of whom continue to thrust weights around for countless hours thinking this is what they must do to MAINTAIN what they already have. This thinking had me in the gym 3-4 X per week for an hour at a time. Without much in the way of gains mind you.

Switching to Occam’s Protocol for me was an act of faith. I did not personally believe that I could work out just 1x or 2x per week for 20 minutes and not specifically gain muscle, but keep the muscle definition I have and be able to continue lifting the weights that I had. My goal was never to be a body builder, but to have some muscle definition, feel great and be in good health.

So I cut my routine down from about 3 hours per week to 40 minutes per week and now about 20 minutes of gym time total per week.

What we really need then is body fat percentage x Total Inches / Time = The X Factor (or something like this) basically Results/Time = X! Where the most important thing is Time.

For me this has been my greatest and most prized result. More TIME with my family, my friends, my kids. More time to enjoy life and less time spent thrusting around heavy weights and worrying about what I eat. This is what the 4 Hour Body teaches us, you can do a lot more with a lot less!

Thank you for pointing this out, you gave me a lot to think about, and I wish you the best in life and on your journey to better health and well being.

Good answer, Stephen, and of course it makes sense. If you can maintain at 1/4 the expense of time it’s well worth it. After sending my question I saw an explanation elsewhere on your site indicating you weren’t able to be entirely consistent, along with the results of your sister and brother in law, so that made more sense of the stats too.

All my supplements should be here in India within a week and I plan on sticking to this for a month straight, no exceptions, and see what happens.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you, I wrote a part of the answer to your question to Tim (below in the comments section). The other part of the answer is that I need to cut more carbs and really try to focus on high quality protein entering 2013. I have had some improvements in the last several months that I have not mentioned on the blog. I can get to a lower body fat I know, the question is: Will I have the motivation to really make it happen this year? We will see, as I mentioned below to Tim, life is about balance, and cutting my gym time by 75% and maintaining has been the first step. Now is the time to kick it into high gear and use these principles to develop real, and most importantly, SUSTAINABLE!! Gains!

Best of luck to you, and thanks for taking a moment to leave a comment!

You are doint somethint wrong: after one year of working out you have almost the same body and stats. you only lost 3lbs and 0.3% body fat – that’s nothing! Shouldn’t this workout creats significant changes?!

I was thinking about this today before I wrote back to you and I realized this page has got it all wrong. So I am going to update it, to make it fit with Tim’s real underlying principles.

The 4 Hour life is about the total package… specifically having time to do the things you love the most, care for those you love the most and of course a big part of this is our health. So our life exists on multiple planes, or I guess you could plot it as curves.

One for health and fitness, the others would have to do with things such as free time, finances and overall happiness.

So this is what has transpired in the last year and a half. BTW I do need to post health updates because I have made some gains since the last post here as well.

I cut my time down in the gym by about 75% using Occam’s Protocol…. My physique is a bit better (I think) and I am happy to be in the gym less. I have started barefoot trail running, and my swimming has become better. I have ran in several short and long distance events, spent more time surfing and a lot more time exercising with my children. If you don’t have kids it is hard to understand how this effects your time for exercise (or everything else for that matter), but trust me it makes a big impact. I have remained 100% injury free. (well besides some stitches in my face) This is a huge difference for me.

I started 5 online niche sites. 3 have provided some income for me now totaling around 1500 dollars per month. The others are hobbies, one is for a large non profit that is focused on global health work. I traveled a lot with my family, cut my work week down to 3, 11 hour shifts at the hospital, worked with a close friend to implement a new healthcare model in Haiti, watched countless patients lose 100’s of pounds using the slow carb diet, and started really living and enjoying life.

In other words, this page is missing the 4 Hour Workweek section. The 4 Hour Body is in perfect alliance with the 4 Hour Workweek. Less time in the gym, less time working for the man, more time doing what I love.

My body stats make me happy for the fact that before the 4 Hour Body my gym workouts were no fun, I didn’t eat as well as I could, my sex life was a bit stale and I was spending too much time doing all of this.

The big picture is: Yes there have been significant changes, I think there are a lot more on the horizon for 2013, and we will see where these pictures go in the next 12 months. Six pack abs? I don’t know, I would like that, we will see how this fits into the balance. I will make sure to keep you updated here.

Thanks for you comment, I truly wish you the best in your life and journey towards health.